[BACK]

 

Piano Lessons

My Teaching ...

It has been my great joy to share the art of playing the piano to young beginning and intermediate students as well adults for the past two decades.

In my private studio I teach classical piano music; although I have begun to teach popular styles to beginning students using the new series American Popular Piano.

I base my teaching materials and approach on each individual student's needs. Although I do not have a particular method book that all my students use, for the majority of my beginning piano students I use materials from Gradus: Progressive Repertoire for the Beginning to Intermediate Pianist, such as the note-reading chart and flash-cards and repertoire pieces.

I have gained an incredible amount of insight into teaching children through my years of teaching in the summers at the Interlochen Center for the Arts with the junior piano faculty, Michael Benson, Dorothy Vogel, David Husser and Sara Ernst.

In the college and university setting I have taught private applied lessons as well as group instruction at the University of Texas Pan American and Westfield State College to undergraduate and graduate piano majors, as well as adult amateurs.

 

A LITTLE ABOUT MY BACKGROUND ...

 

 

I began piano lessons at the age of six under the tutelage of my grandmother, Thetis Barnett. She received her ARCT from the Royal Conservatory Examinations in Canada and used this technical program and repertoire with her piano studio. When I turned twelve she suggested I move to a renowned piano teacher/composer/conductor, Jeff Manookian, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Thanks to my rigorous early training under my grandmother's instruction, I began lessons with my new teacher possessing a strong technical regime of scales and arpeggios, good sight-reading abilities, as well as a variety of pieces in the standard repertoire. At that time Maestro Manookian was a conductor of various symphonies such as the Westminster Chamber Orchestra and Intermountain Classical Orchestra in the Salt Lake region. On several occasions he invited me to play concertos as a young soloist with these orchestras in concertos of Mozart, Beethoven, and other standard concerti. Unfortunately, I only have one recording of myself playing during this time period; a recording of myself playing for a local television program in Utah--Prokofiev's Diabolic Suggestion. [prokofiev video]

Utah State University was the logical choice for me to begin work as an undergraduate piano major. Professor Gary Amano, a long-time friend and colleague of Jeff Manookian awarded me a generous scholarship to complete my degree there. I entered a variety of competitions throughout the state and among other honors, was awarded the annual concerto competition performance award during my senior year to play Liszt's "Totentanz" with the USU Symphony Orchestra.[Totentanz audio]

I was very fortunate to receive an Associate Instructor position at Indiana University, Bloomington, for my master's degree in piano performance where I studied with Lev Vlassenko as my principal teacher, and during the summers, Manahem Pressler. I played alot of Russian repertoire with Professor Vlassenko while in Bloomington, and for my master's recital I played Scriabin's 24 Preludes, Op. 11, among other Russian works. [Scriabin Preludes Op. 11 audio]

My Doctorate of Musical Arts in piano performance was at the University of Kansas where I studied with Dr. Jack Winerock. My research focus was on romantic music of the twentieth century in Argentina as well as folk-inspired piano music of the Andean mountain region. I entered several piano competitions during my years in Kansas and was a national finalist at the Music Teachers National Association Convention as well as the grand prize winner of the Ernst Krenek International Piano Competition in Palm Springs, California. [Krenek Piano Sonata 7]

My Studio Here in California ...